Yeah, I hate those people.
Rowan's been on another insomnia streak, with 15-minute naps, couchers that are creeping later and later, waking up every 30 minutes and needing to be rocked back to sleep, and of course the 3 AM feeding that reappeared around early December. She is so tired, but there's no such thing as baby Ambien (though my aunt, who's a nurse by the way, suggested rum.)
I tried feeding her more as my SIL suggested, and that worked for a day. Then, back to the no-sleep crabtastic infant. Who is now spitting up more because she's been overfed. Great.
Our doctor admonished me for not letting her cry it out. He pushed literature at me, and said, "you really need to do this. She needs to be independent." So we tried. 33 minutes later, she was completely inconsolable. She had been crying and screaming so hard she was manic. She had that wild, terrified, completely freaked out look in her eyes, and she was drenched in sweat, hiccuping and beet red. We held her and consoled her to no avail--she couldn't let it go. She kept screaming. It took 15 minutes to get her to calm down enough to nurse, and then another 45 minutes to get her back to sleep. Maybe that works with 99% of babies, but not ours.
Yesterday was another super-crabby 15-minute nap day in a string of 3 such days, but at 6 PM she literally passed out (you know she's at the end of her rope when she starts shrieking) for 40 minutes. She didn't go to bed until 8:30 or so, and it took some doing (by that I mean I literally crawled out of her room on my belly.)But I think she must have hit the wall. She slept from 9-ish (I know she laid awake for a while) until 6:45 this morning. Then at 9:15 she went down for a morning nap. And she's still sleeping at 10:40.
My Mom would have said, "Praise the Lord and pass the band-aids!!!"
8 comments:
Hello,
I was searching "cry-it-out" & your blog was listed. I would LOVE to know why doctors are such fans of cry it out. I tried it w/ my oldest, it didn't work then, and I am hesitant to try it w/ my 9 month old. I can't help but feel cruel doing it.
I'm so glad your daughter is getting back to a decent schedule. Hope it lasts!
Hi-
You should read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby by Marc Weissbluth. It is so great. I used it with both my kids and it works wonders....although I believe it is a lot of common sense. They are pretty smart. They know you will come when they cry for a certain amount of time. You would be surprised...the first night is always the worst. It only gets better. But you should read the book! Good Luck
I feel your pain!!! My daughter is the same way. She has NEVER slept through the night! 3am seems to be her favorite time of day.
Pass those Band-Aids this way! Lol.
Ethan was the same way. I never let him cry it out either. He would get totally hysterical. I used to warm his crib with a warm water bottle! I know, spoiled him. I used to also put a one of my tshirts inthe crib with him. He slept on my chest for his first 3-4 months of existance. Yeah, I"m totally a sucker. I did read the book Jenny recommended. And from what I remember it was the only book that I liked and agreed with. So, give it a try! How much does she weigh now? Georgia will be 5 months on feb 7th and she's 18 lbs!
This stage will pass and R will eventually sleep thru the night. It's hard I know!!
When ella went through one of these periods, I was at the end of my rope and ended up using "The Baby Whisperer" technique. This worked really well for us, and although she suggests CIO to help get your baby on a napping schedule, she is very insistent about not letting the baby get hysterically upset, which obviously is counter-productive. The critical thing, no matter which technique you decide to use, is to stick to it for atleast 3 days before giving up. Honestly, I thought that the Baby Whisperer technique was a complete failure for us, but by night three, I could see 90% improvement (I'm not going to lie and say that it was a miracle cure but things were much much better). Good luck!
I've read the book (OK, most of it) and tried the techniques. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and I'm quite consistent, but it just doesn't always work, and how do you get them to sleep longer? That one I just can't seem to do--once she's up, she's up. Some days she goes down easy, other days she will allow you to let her soothe herself to sleep, and other days she is an absolute maniac. I wish she was consistent, but she's just not, no matter how consistent I am. Then again, I suffer from insomnia periodically (so does my sister), so I am not surprised. That and a husband who is admittedly OCD, and you've got for one high strung baby...
Forgot to mention this in my previous post: From the time E was about 3 months old, I have been doing the same routine every night. Bath (now a shower!), brush teeth, read books, and then put on soothing bedtime lullabys and go to sleep. (I used to rock E until he was just about asleep and then transfer him to his crib so he could 'fall asleep' in his crib.)
I close the door and have a night light on, but it's still really dark in his room.
Sounds like our little guy. We were so exhausted over the summer because he just seemed to not sleep well, whereas he had been a decent sleeper before. When it got fairly cold, we got his "gigoteuse" out and he has slept well ever since then. We are swearing by it now. We live in CA, so there is no way he was cold over the summer. I guess he just wasn't cozy enough anymore when we took his baby gigoteuse out of service because it was too small and it was too warm out. Our guy likes to have something over him apparently when he sleeps. It doesn't cut it to dress him warmly (like fleece PJs). Over the summer, I know what to do now: man in diaper only but with sleeping bag! Like a lot of people do apparently often in the South of France I have heard. I have my big gigoteuse size 110cm somewhere between France and the US as we speak... Bought it at laredoute (not on sale unfortunately) and they ship. You can get sleeping bags size < 9mos in the US too, so if you haven't tried, maybe something you want to give it a shot! Good luck!
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